First party titles selling better than before

Although some developers may consider not to develop for the Nintendo platforms at the moment, Nintendo is doing better business with their first party titles compared to last year.

A strong launch for LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins helped Nintendo 3DS maintain its torrid pace in 2013. Through the first four months of the year, Nintendo has already sold more than 2.1 million units of first-party Nintendo 3DS software in the U.S. alone, an increase of 52 percent over the same time period last year. In 2012, it took 30 weeks for Nintendo 3DS to sell 2 million units of first-party software. In 2013, the platform accomplished that same feat in 18 weeks.

With the peak holiday selling season still ahead and a strong lineup of upcoming games that includes Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on May 24, Animal Crossing: New Leaf on June 9, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team on Aug. 11, as well as new titles in the Pokémon, Mario Golf and Legend of Zelda franchises, Nintendo 3DS is poised to have the strongest year of sales in its history.

Some notable sales numbers achieved by Nintendo in April include:

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold nearly 94,000 combined physical and digital copies after launching on April 24.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sold more than 140,000 combined physical and digital units in April and has now sold more than 530,000 total units to date.

In its sixth month on the market, New Super Mario Bros. U for the Wii U system increased its lifetime sales total to nearly 770,000 combined physical and digital units.

During the next several months, a cavalcade of fan-favorite franchises will launch for Wii U. This includes Game & Wario on June 23, Pikmin 3 on Aug. 4, Disney's Planes from Disney Interactive on Aug. 6 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist from Ubisoft on Aug. 20. At the upcoming E3 trade show in June in Los Angeles, Nintendo expects to show attendees upcoming Wii U games from the Mario Kart, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Bros. franchises.